Me at the ASSA

If you want to see me at the upcoming ASSA meeting in Chicago, here is some relevant information. I will be chairing a session on “Econom...

Why Y?

A professor emails me: My students have the pleasure to use your economics textbook. I have one question: where the symbol "Y" f...

A Possible Victory for Alan Auerbach

Tax policy is moving in fascinating directions . You can read more about the Auerbach proposal here  and here .

Manly Men in Girly Jobs

An insightful column from Betsey Stevenson .

From the Harvard Skit Party

Harvard Econ G4 Skit 2016 - "Rise Up" (A Hamilton Parody) from Econ Skits on Vimeo . Also another entry here .

Summers on the Carrier Deal

Interesting observations from Larry . A tidbit: Some of the worst abuses of power are not those that leaders inflict on their people. They ...

Don't worry about the trade deficit

Click here to read my column in Sunday's New York Times .

Josh Lerner

An interview with my colleague over at HBS .

Memories of Fidel's Cuba

From my friend and colleague George Borjas .

An Interview with Ed Conard

Click here to watch me interview Ed Conard about his new book,  The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class fo...

The Triumph of the Less Educated

In a Times column back in July, I noted that the Brexit vote was strongly correlated with education. The recent presidential election show...

The podcast is live

You can hear my interview with Frank Conway over at the Economic Rockstar website .

On the Election Results

I did not support Mr. Trump, but now that he is our President-elect, I wish him well. To my many friends who are now freaking out, I encoura...

What is it like to win a Nobel Prize?

Before the Flood

A movie, approximately 1 1/2 hours, on climate change, with yours truly making a brief appearance at around 59:40.  ( Update : Sorry, it see...

Coming soon

If you teach introductory economics, you might be interested to know that my publisher is hosting a number of webinars in the coming weeks t...

Worst of Both Worlds

Alan D. Viard and Sita Nataraj Slavov say the U.S. tax system is the wrong compromise between Republican and Democratic ideals .

Update on Carbon Washington

An Upcoming Interview

This coming Friday, I will be interviewed by Frank Conway at an Economics Teaching Conference .  You can hear a live broadcast of the interv...

In Praise of High Prices

Click here to read my column in Sunday's New York Times .

Normative Ethics and Welfare Economics

For the next couple days, I will be hanging out at this conference .  Various papers available at the link.

Why Are Interest Rates So Low? Causes and Implications

A new talk by my erstwhile dissertation adviser, Stanley Fischer .

What I've been doing

Today and tomorrow, I am attending this conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Papers and some videos available at the link.

Trump's Economist

A profile in The New Yorker .

The Nobel

Congratulations to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström .

New Videos from the NBER

1. " The Dramatic Economics of the U.S. Market for Higher Education ," Caroline Hoxby's Martin Feldstein Lecture. 2. " Ma...

How Trump paid so little in taxes.

Josh Barro explains one theory of the case .

Harvard Scholars on President Obama

The Harvard Gazette surveys a bunch of faculty .

Fight for Fifteen?

My friend Allen Sanderson, from the University of Chicago, questions the idea of a $15 minimum wage .

Trumponomics

Regular readers of this blog know that I often disagree with Paul Krugman.  But I come here today to agree with a recent post of his on the ...

A Trailer for the Pigou Club

Bank stocks are just as risky now as they were before the financial crisis

That is the most interesting thing I learned at the recent BPEA meeting.  Click here to learn more .

Diagnosing and Treating the Slow Recovery

From Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

We're number one!

Ec 10, that is .  And another economics course is number four.

Equity and the Estate Tax

Click here to read my column in Sunday's NY Times .

Wehner on Orwell on Fierce Modesty

I enjoyed this essay by Peter Wehner .  It is not about economics, but the lesson should be heeded by anyone who engages in the national deb...

Economics Teaching Conference

Economics educators may be interested in this upcoming conference . Frank Conway, founder of the Economic Rockstar , will interview me at th...

Where I have been eating

For readers in the Boston area, here is a restaurant recommendation: Tiger Mama .  Fun, Southeast Asian-inspired food from Chef Tiffani Fais...

Big Idea #6

The Economist explains the policy trilemma of international finance .

Uwe Reinhardt on Obamacare

The Princeton health economist sees a coming death spiral : "If you got a bunch of Princeton undergrads to design a health care system,...

A Survey of CEA Economists

Not a single one endorses Mr. Trump , says the Wall Street Journal .

Summer Readings

Here are some of the books I have read this summer, all recommended. Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo Success and Luck by Robert Frank T...

Big Idea #5

The Economist explains Nash equilibrium .

Why many men aren't working

Debunking Scandinavia Envy

Fact of the day: "Danish-Americans have a measured living standard about 55 percent higher than the Danes in Denmark. Swedish-American...

Borjas on Vetting Immigrants

George says it's a very American tradition .

Big Idea #4

The Economist explains the Keynesian multiplier .

Big Idea #3

The Economist explains the Stolper-Samuelson theorem .

The Scandinavian Fantasy

The Atlantic summarizes some fascinating new research from Jim Heckman .

News from Amazon

Source   Source   To users of my favorite textbooks: Thank you!  Have a great semester.

My Take on Mr. Trump

This morning, John Harwood of CNBC and the New York Times asked for my view of Donald Trump, which John then summarized on his Twitter feed...

Gary Johnson joins the Pigou Club

From an interview with the LA Times . " I’m open also to the notion of a carbon tax . That it does have an impact, that it ends up bei...

Big Idea #2

The second article in The Economist series is on Hyman Minsky .

Anxiety about Globalization

Click here to read my column in Sunday's NY Times .

Big Idea #1

The Economist is running a series on six big ideas in economics.  First up: Akerlof and lemons .

GDP and Its Discontents

I have a book review in Science .  Here is an ungated version.

Why did Lehman fail?

Larry Ball has an important  new monograph arguing, contra Bernanke, that during the recent financial crisis, the Fed could have saved Lehm...

Pigou Club News

1. Progress in Washington State . 2. Progress in Canada .

A Quick Note on a Universal Basic Income

Consider an economy in which average income is $50,000 but with much income inequality.   To provide a social safety net, two possible polic...

Summer Reads

Some suggestions from Harvard profs .

Some Questions for Mr Trump

I see you recently opened up a golf course in Scotland. I presume that part of your business plan is for some Americans to take vacations to...

Brexit in a Snapshot 2

Feldstein on Brexit

Marty appraises the fallout .

Brexit in a Snapshot

A friend sends along this summary:

Yellen at Radcliffe

On the Alesina Hypothesis

In my  recent NY Times article , I explored several hypotheses to explain slow growth. One was based on work by Alberto Alesina and Silvia ...

What's wrong with the economy?

Click here to read my column in Sunday's NY Times .

Bad ideas never die

In the Silicon Valley suburbs, activists are pushing for laws that limit rents , even though, as the article says, "economists have an ...

Summers on Trump

Larry says the Donald would be a disaster .

Elinor Ostrom in the news (sort of)

A friend emails me: This article in the today's NY Times discusses how musicians who play near the site where John Lennon died have ha...

Dani Rodrik

A profile by Prakash Loungani .

What I am doing today

Conversing with the Fed chair . Update :

Sachs on Sanders

Jeff backs Bernie .

File this under "Quixotic"

Larry Kotlikoff is running for president .

McCloskey on Growth

A great article in today's Wall Street Journal .

The PhD Job Market

A brief introduction, via the Richmond Fed .

How to tell if you're sitting next to an economist

This is cute .

Myths of the Campaign Trail

Click here to read my column in Sunday's NY Tiimes .

Cochrane on Growth

John has a nice piece in today's Wall Street Journal .

Condorcet in the News

Eric Maskin and Amartya Sen apply voting theory to the current Republican primary .

Kocherlakota on Trump

Narayana writes a column titled Trump Starts Making Economic Sense .  Seems to be a minority view among economists.

Gabaix to Harvard

I just heard the wonderful news that Xavier Gabaix will be joining the faculty of the Harvard economics department.  Welcome, Xavier! Adden...

Truths about Trade

Alan Blinder has a great column in today's Wall Street Journal .

A Reading for the Pigou Club

On Yoram Bauman, Carbon Washington, and the success in British Columbia .

A Nice Assignment for a Macro Course

My friend Phill Swagel gives his students the following assignment: Imagine that you are a staff member working for a member of Congress who...

Where I'll Be

I am giving several public lectures this week. Here are the locations and links to relevant information, in case you are in the area and int...

A Front Page from the Future?

The Boston Globe has some fun today, including with the paper a fake front page from the beginning of an imagined Trump presidency.  You ca...

Happy Square Day!

It is 4-9-16.

Immelt on Sanders

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, whom President Obama once tapped to head his economic advisory board, gives his view of presidential candi...

Who are the free traders?

Paul Krugman has an odd column today, suggesting that if you are a free trader, the Democrats are historically a better bet for you.  He wr...

Almost everything you hear from POTUS candidates about trade deals is wrong

The new IGM Panel poll of prominent economists asks about this proposition: An important reason why many workers in Michigan and Ohio have ...

Commentary on Trump's Economics

Alan Blinder Jon Hartley and Glenn Hubbard I don't know any mainstream economist--right, left, or center--who has good things to say abo...

More Competition

The Stigler Center of the University of Chicago has a new blog .

The Latest from Merle Hazard

FYI: Both Merle and Alison Brown (the banjo player) are former Ec 10 students.

From My Inbox

Hillary on Outsourcing

It depends on when you ask . If you are interested in reviewing the 2004 furor over outsourcing, click here  ( published version ).

Debating the Ten Principles

In the new issue of the Eastern Economic Journal , David Colander critiques the Ten Principles in my favorite textbook and concludes they a...

A Reading for the Pigou Club

On British Columbia's carbon tax .

John Oliver on Donald Trump

Strong Words from Meg

I don't know Meg Whitman well, but I have met her a few times and have always been impressed.  So this statement from her, writing as f...

More on the Sanders Plan

Christina and David Romer take a close look at Gerald Friedman's analysis of Bernie Sanders's economic plan .

One-Handed Economist Blues

Misunderstanding Marco

I like Marco Rubio and hope that he, rather than Donald Trump, gets the Republican nomination.  In particular, I think his tax plan includes...

The Zero-Sum Worldview of Mr. Trump

Roger Lowenstein takes on the economics of Donald Trump .